Not boldly going
A bit gutted to hear about Elite on Kickstarter. Having more than a passing interest in physics, quantum theories and space in general, I have been craving more quality space-themed role-playing games, etc. for years, why more sandbox games aren’t set up there is beyond me to be honest, the possibilities are limitless (see what I did there?).

Mass Effect was great but only really created an illusion of freedom. However I did the maths on Kickstarter’s attempts to raise money for this title months ago. It’s been pretty obvious for a while that the target goal wasn’t going to met. So I am not altogether surprised. Shame.

I am still holding out that one day, if a developer wakes up, we will get a Star Trek role-playing game that is as open as Skyrim with tons of locations and even more missions. The various factions are already in place, as are the ships, weapons, colonies and planets. They don’t have to incorporate original characters even! That isn’t necessary. Not only would it appeal to Trekkies, it would appeal to everyone. Let Bethesda do the work, it’ll be a guaranteed success! GC – who actually owns the rights for Star Trek games?Razzledazzle

GC: We had a letter about Star Trek the other week: Namco Bandai has the licence for the new films but as far as we know Bethesda still has the one for the older series. But we’re curious now, did you back the Elite Kickstarter?

The immature audience
Art box is causing quite some controversy. For Sony to think that a game like The Last Of Us will sell more because it has a male on it box art is very degrading, just as it would for them to assume vice versa. I would like to think that most of us gamers are grown up people. Why is it so important to Sony to that extent, are they after the less mature audience?

As a black male born in the late 70s I have had to listen to nonsense such as you cannot have a black male/female on the front magazines as this will affect sales. It is nice to see individuals and Naughty Dog challenging these stereotypes.

As for BioShock Infinite, I find Elizabeth the most interesting aspect of that game and if purchased she will have had the biggest impact on that fact, it is good to finally see some good female leads in games with the new Lara Croft as well. I think Elizabeth is the most intriguing female character I have seen in a game since Bastilla in Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. I find games are enhanced for me when interesting female characters are integrated, something also lacking in movies as well as games.

What do GC and its readers make of The Walking Dead and Half-Life 2 picking up Game of the Year and Decade in the VGA Awards? I was happy to see our unsung undead hero achieve such a feat, but the question is can we really classify it as a game? If all games went the same direction tomorrow it could not be classed unique, would it be classed as bog standard?G1OAT (gamertag/Steam ID)

GC: We agree, naming it best game of the year is going a bit too far. Although it certainly deserves whatever script or storytelling awards they may have had.

Known unknown
I got to level 71 online with Need For Speed and you get the choice to reset to level 0 again which O did, ever since it constantly crashes when in a public match. I looked online and this seems to be a common problem, are Criterion aware of this?

If not how can I let them know as I can only play private matches with friends. Also, the downloadable content for it next week seems a bit of a rip off. 800 Microsoft Points for a few cars and races, seriously I hope gamers avoid this then EA will hopefully learn to stop ripping us off. For that price I would want a new area to drive around.Rob

GC: If it’s already been widely reported online then they certainly must know about it. Whether they’ll fix it is another thing entirely. We’d try one of the fan forums (the Criterion ones are currently down) and see if any other players have found a work around.

Primary reason
Have to jump in and defend some of Boilingover’s general points in terms of the importance of when a console is released. For starters the SNES/Mega Drive argument is a bit too long ago to be really fully relevant to today’s market. Secondly, he is right in the fact that the Wii doesn’t really count as an example of a console coming along second and then doing better. It does have a completely different audience than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. That is why it was successful, Nintendo found a way to sell to people who previously wouldn’t have bought a console.

If you are talking in terms of two major manufacturers fighting a battle for the hearts of the traditional gamer then it goes without saying that when the console is released is one of the major factors in deciding success. True you have to have a good console, with good developers and good games but if both consoles are similarly matched then whichever one comes first has a literal head start.

When the original Xbox was released the PlayStation 2 was so ingrained in the market that there was no real incentive for people to move on, it didn’t have a good start and therefore attracted less developers and gamers.

Likewise by the time the PlayStation 3 came out, a good number of people (myself included) had already spent a lot of money on their Xbox 360 and had neither the time or money to invest in a second console which has mostly the same games.

With the next generation we will probably see less exclusives than any previous generation so there probably once again won’t be a drastic difference in the choice between Sony or Microsoft’s machines. If people are eager to jump aboard the next gen train (which I believe they are) then most consumers will plump for which ever console is released first. By the time the second one comes along it is logical to presume that there will be less consumers out there with money (or gaming time) to spend on another machine.PjDonnelli

GC: If you’re just going to reject every historical example because it doesn’t fit your theory we’re not sure what else we can say. Besides, on a worldwide basis the PlayStation 3 has caught up with Xbox 360 sales and will almost certainly surpass them by the end of the generation. People buy a console based on whether it has games they want to play on it, any other consideration is entirely secondary.

For Crying out loud
Quick question on Far Cry 3… I really enjoyed the stealth/sandbox/planning element of Far Cry 2 but it had a game-breaking ailment – once you’ve disposed of bases, if you wander too far away from that base everyone within would instantly respawn. I mean, you’d take out a checkpoint, boogie on past, realise you’ve forgotten something and turn around and boom – all the baddies have returned.

It got repetitive and removed any sense of meticulous planning, meaning I’d have to score the game something like 4/10. So – same again in Far Cry 3?JactusCack

GC: No, not if you destroy the base.

One hour later
RE: upgrading your PlayStation 3. In addition to your replacement hard drive (£38 eBay for 500GB), you will need an external to back up onto, just borrow one if need be. Plug it in, go to settings, system settings, back-up utility and select back-up, should take about an hour.

Then switch off system and remove external and swap 60GB for 500GB (see YouTube) switch back on, plug in external, return to back up utility and select restore. This will put everything back on.
Only additional task may be downloading the update from Sony and placing it in a folder titled UPDATE, must be upper case.

All sounds worse than it is, hope I’ve kept this short enough GC!Jowbullman
PS: Hope The Walking Dead game never introduces Negan, he makes the governor look like a saint!

RE: AckworthOwl. There is a backup utility on the PlayStation 3, you just need a USB hard drive formatted to FAT32 that has enough free space (60GB). It will copy everything from your current small hard drive to the USB drive. Put in the new bigger hard drive and then restore it from the USB. If you’ve PlayStation Plus it is well worth it.Dan

Technical assistance
With regard to those trying to find a good way to read the RSS feed, can I recommend Google Reader. It has a website and mobile application so you can use it from pretty much any device. You sign in with your Google account and add the RSS feeds that you’re interested in to it. Then you can read the feeds through the website or mobile app and it keeps track of which stories you’ve read regardless of which way you access it. That means it’s great for keeping on top of the news whenever you have a few minutes spare.

RE: AckworthOwl. The best way I’ve found of transferring the data between PlayStations when you’re upgrading the drive is to get hold of an external USB hard drive. Plug that in and do a full machine backup to it from the system menus. Then put the new drive in, do the drive setup process and restore the backup again. It’s the quickest way to do it and it’s the only way to transfer copy protected save game files, unless you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber.Stever (PSN ID)/b0bb1ns (Steam/Nintendo ID)

Never-ending story
First off I would like to say that I’m enjoying the new look of the site, no more blurry text when trying to read the Inbox on my iPhone. I am missing the Underbox and would like to see it return along with the Metro IDs, as someone who doesn’t write to the Inbox very often I really enjoyed the Underbox discussions and felt it was a good way to get involved with fellow gamers and exchange tips on variety of topics. If it wasn’t for the advice given to me via the Underbox I would probably not have managed to get DayZ working on my laptop.

I have one question I would like to ask and that is when you press Start at the title screen of games what does it save before it loads the main menu? It’s just something that’s always puzzled me. Anyway hope everyone has great Christmas and New Year.RogueTr00per82 (gamertag)/rogue-trooper82 (PSN ID)

GC: It’s not saving anything, it’s checking online and loading your save data – particularly anything that might relate to features you’ve unlocked on the main menu. We think most people have come round to the redesign now, but it’s absolutely not finished yet and there is an awful lot of work going on behind the scenes to add new features (including a proper search) and to see what can be done to improve the comments section.

That euphemism generator has really got its claws into me, I was just playing Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure and Raphael just asked to see Marie’s ‘violin’ then told me how ‘The Dragon Crown sleeps at the foot of the Holy Mother, lulled by the princess of the moon’. Filth!Bobbleheaddy

The charts and release dates are viewable via a PC but I presume everyone is having problems seeing them on mobile phones as I can’t see it on my phone either.Superiordom (gamertag)/Superdom (Steam ID)

GC: Ah, yes. You’re quite right, we should’ve realised that. And thanks to all the others who pointed this out, we’ll see what we can do to get that changed on Monday.

This week’s Hot Topic
The discussion point for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader rankmed (PSN ID) who challenges you to invent a multiplayer mode for your favourite game.

Regardless of whether the game in question already has some kind of multiplayer what kind of options would you like to see it include, including both competitive and co-operative action? If it’s a game designed to be single-player only what’s the most imaginative way you can think of to add a meaningful multiplayer mode?

What are some of your favourite non-standard multiplayer options in existing games and do you think enough effort is made to expand beyond standard deathmatch and other familiar options? Are there any games that you definitely wouldn’t want a multiplayer option for? And what’s your least favourite multiplayer mode in a game you otherwise like?